So who gave Police Scotland’s current covert ops all-clear?
A report hailed last week by Police Scotland for backing how covert operations are now managed was written by a former senior officer at the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone told the Scottish Police Authority the review in 2018 proved the national force now had robust procedures in place to manage undercover officers. But the review was written by Stephen Whitelock, a senior officer at the SCDEA where Mr Livingstone described the exposure of a chaotic and potentially criminal undercover unit and the events that followed as “deplorable, it was outrageous behaviour. It was behaviour that we would not tolerate in the Police Service of Scotland”. Mr Whitelock, former head of intelligence at the SCDEA, was lead inspector for the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) report into undercover policing, published in 2018. He was number three at the SCDEA in 2011 when Johnny Gwynne, who went on to become Deputy Chief Constable of Police Scotland, was number two. Mr Gwynne and Mr Whitelock were the two most senior SCDEA officers involved in the events that led to a former undercover officer, known as Mrs K in court, successfully suing the police after claiming she was made a scapegoat and frozen out of her job when she exposed the chaotic finances and management of the elite agency’s covert unit.
Both men announced their retirement in January as the judgment in Mrs K’s case was published but said the timing was a coincidence. Police Scotland is appealing against the judgment.
Critics have questioned Police Scotland’s insistence that the “deplorable and outrageous” SCDEA scandal is a “legacy issue” given Mr Gwynne went from the SCDEA to be number two at Police Scotland and that Mr Whitelock’s undercover review is now being cited in support of the national force’s current procedures. Liam Mcarthur, Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman, said: “There are undoubtedly still questions yet to be answered following the SPA meeting.
“If, as it appears, the authorities are content to leave those questions unanswered I will be raising this matter at the parliament’s justice sub-committee on policing.”